By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu Dec. 28: As per the ambitious plan of the city office to make the streets of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) free of vagabonds and homeless people, the city office initiated a campaign to inform people that begging is now a prohibited act.
The city authority kicked off a seven-day awareness drive to inform people that begging in the street will no more be acceptable inside the KMC.
The drive was initiated with the support of Nepal Police, ManavSewa Ashram and stakeholders.
On the first day, the campaigners reached the areas like New road, Sankata, Mahankal and Bhadrakali temples and its nearby areas, asking beggars to stop begging in the streets of the city.
During the campaign, the campaigners had asked the officers of the Sankata Mandir Bebasthapan Samiti or the temple management committee, to support the city office in its drive.
Chief of the Urban Management Division, KMC Hari Bahadur Kunwar said the campaign was initiated to identify the real needy and homeless people from the streets, so that they could get a better and protected life, as promised by the KMC.
While carrying out the campaign, they had found that numbers of visually impaired, women, children, disabled people and those seeking support of the treatment of their ailment were still begging in the streets of city, said Kunwar.
When the campaigners reached the Bhadrakali temple, a family of a visually impaired people shared that they were forced to beg in the street because they had to pay back their loan of Rs. 600,000.
“If we will stop begging, then who will pay our loan? Who will arrange livelihood for our family?” theonly bread winner of the family asked the city authority.
“We have not committed any crime. As I am a blind person, I cannot earn livelihood for my family. The only option I have left is to sing a song in the street and ask people for their support,” the person said.
“Peopleare helping us to sustain our lives, so there is nothing wrong in begging,” another person shared his opinion to the campaigners.
In the course of the campaign, the authority had also encountered some beggars who were found consuming alcohol from the money they had collected from begging.
While others defended themselves stating that there might be a few people who were misusing the money but what about those genuine and needy people, who had been begging to sustain their family?, they asked.
However, when the authority asked some beggars about the name of a person who lent them loans, they did not answer, said Kunwar.
The KMC has set a goal to assure that no one had to spend their nights under the open skies, without proper protection.
Since last two years, the metropolis had been carrying out the drive to make the streets of the KMC free from the homeless and beggars.
The KMC had targeted to make the declaration on its 25th KMC Day. However, the metropolis has not been able to achieve this target.
The authority has claimed that professional beggars who have made begging as a business and who are using others in begging business are the ones who have been posing a challenge to the authority to accomplish the target.